Tamilnadu State Transport Corporations (MTC, SETC, TNSTCs)

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Contents IT infrastructure requirements of TNSTC and SETC: ..................................................................................... 3 Online reservation for TNSTCs: ............................................................................................................. 3 Bus fleet - rolling stock in terms of buses owned by STC’s ........................................................................... 3 Maintenance Infrastructure.......................................................................................................................... 4 Services ......................................................................................................................................................... 4 Moffusil ..................................................................................................................................................... 4 City Services: ............................................................................................................................................. 4 Operations .................................................................................................................................................... 5 New ideas to generate revenue from untapped resource ........................................................................... 6 Focus on Tourism .......................................................................................................................................... 6 MTC ............................................................................................................................................................... 7 Specific requirements of cities and towns in TN with regards to transport infrastructure.......................... 8 TNSTC-Coimbatore.................................................................................................................................... 8 TNSTC-Madurai: ........................................................................................................................................ 8 TNSTC-Thirunelveli .................................................................................................................................... 8 TNSTC-Salem: ............................................................................................................................................ 8 TNSTC Villupuram ..................................................................................................................................... 9 Proposed High End (Volvo or Benz or 12M AC of Leyland) bus routes: ....................................................... 9 From Chennai: ........................................................................................................................................... 9 From Coimbatore .................................................................................................................................... 10 Interstate Kerala routes: ......................................................................................................................... 10 Interstate Karnataka routes: ................................................................................................................... 11 Interstate Andhra routes: ....................................................................................................................... 11 Reference: ................................................................................................................................................... 12

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IT infrastructure requirements of TNSTC and SETC: Online reservation for TNSTCs: Introduction of online reservation in TNSTC website. 1. 2. 3. 4.

Volvo Services - Fully available for online reservation. UD AC Services - 75% of seats. UD Services - 60% of seats. SD and other services - 50% of seats Introduce agents in the important cities for TNSTC reservation. This will generate employment to good number of people. TNSTC can also opt for reservation of tickets through post offices and some bank ATMs in a long term measure. 100% deployment of ticketing machines. GPS based tracking of all major services. This will lead to optimum utilization of fleet and monitoring of breakdowns. Introduction of e-commerce, all the tendering process need to happen through the net and Reverse auction need to be adopted for spare parts procurement. Due to 30 days advance bookings STC will get more credit amount in cash. KSRTC 12 lakh registered customers and it is getting 50000 hits per day during festival times. It also has 513 counters across state. KaSRTC has more agents than TNSTC/SETC in Chennai, Coimbatore etc., it has 12 Franchise booking counters in Chennai and 7 in Coimbatore [4], and Where as TNSTCs have just 5 in Chennai and 1 in Coimbatore.

Bus fleet - rolling stock in terms of buses owned by STC’s Standardization of bus bodies – this will lead to common parts between all buses and lead to lesser inventory to be held for parts and in case of any damage replacement will be easy. Standardization of Interior of buses (seats, trim pars inside the bus) – this will lead to common parts. Procurement of 12m Ashok Leyland for Moffusil services. o 12M are available with various engine options from 160HP. This is very suitable for Non AC applications and will generate more revenue. With a seat pitch of 690mm it can accommodate upto 72 passengers in the 3x2 configuration (Normal 57+2/55+2). And in a 2x2 semi deluxe version (equivalent to our SD) it can seat upto 52 passengers. Introduction of 3*2 - Air suspension and 3*2 AC buses for less than 200 Km running distance.

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Procurement of Premium buses – Introduction of AC Volvo/Benz buses for long distance operations connecting Chennai, Bangalore, Coimbatore, and Madurai with other major cities/towns of TN and nearby States. Premium services are high margin ones and will lead to increase in revenue for the STC.

Maintenance Infrastructure Maintenance staffs need to be trained on latest technologies like Rear engine buses, BSIV buses. The number of maintenance staff to bus ratio need to be increased. Increase in depots is required and land need to be acquired for future depots keeping in mind a 25 year period in future. Maintenance of SETC buses can be done through OEMs (AL and TML). This is a well defined model and successfully implemented in DTC, Delhi. o The contract signed by DTC is the OEM’s should supply the buses and maintain it for the said period (12 years). Though the cost is little higher side it offers a better fleet management and offers a extends the useful life of buses by at least 30 to 40% Include a nominal amount in the ticket fare for maintenance of premium services.

Services Standardization of services under the following buckets:

Moffusil 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

Normal Express Non Stop or Bye Pass Riders (in case of 4 laned highways). Super Deluxe Ultra Deluxe Ultra Deluxe - AC AC Volvo/Benz AC Multi-axle

City Services: 1. 2. 3. 4.

Normal Service. Express Service. SLF. AC Services.

City specific regions need to be created for Madurai and Coimbatore. (Currently TNSTC’s operated less stop services unders different names like BPR, Express, PP, 1 to 1 etc.……all these terminologies need to be standardized across.)

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TNSTCs can introduce short haul AC Services between cities like Nellai-Madurai, Madurai-Trichy, Coimbatore-Pollachi, Coimbatore-Tirupur, Coimbatore-Palani, Coimbatore-Salem, CoimbatoreErode, Erode-Salem, Trichy-Salem, Trichy-Tanjore. Short distance AC services (0-100KM) can be done using a AL 12M AC Coaches without Pushback seats. (New coaches need to be developed in collaboration with body builders like Prakash and Veera). Introduction of 3X2 seater AC services for < 200 Kms route (similar example – Sheetal bus in KaSRTC) Introduction of Super Deluxe buses in bus routes running for more than 350 KMs. From 8.30 PM to 11.45 PM KSRTC is maintaining 15mins one bus in Chennai-Bangalore-Chennai route. Frequency is more in weekends. TNSTCs have a big role to play in it. New Village services connecting villages to the nearest towns and district HQ’s. This can be tailor made services with bodies’ custom built to suit Village people needs and operations.

Operations Introduce the mini buses in Imp cities like Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai, Trichy, Salem. Take over the mini bus operations in rural areas. This will help both the people and the government. (this will be a new avenue for revenue for TN govt. and also lead to goodwill among rural people) Common minor repair workshop in CMBT catering to all TN transport corporations. Introduce a Crew helpline facility - This will help the crews to dialup to the nearby TNSTC depots to get any assistance in case of breakdowns. Branding of buses can be done with local names. SLFs of madurai can be branded as "Vaigai", Similarly "Noyyal" can be used for Coimbatore based SLFs. Branding can also be done for Premium services. Idle parking can be created near CMBT. TNSTC buses spending more than 5/6 hrs in CMBT should be moved to idle parking. This will help reducing the traffing congestion in CMBT. (this will avoid excessive congestion in CMBT which is currently leading to buses taking 1 hour to exit CMBT) Almost all the buses towards TN and other places from chennai starts from CMBT. Instead TNSTCs can try starting atleast one bus from Thiruvanmiyur to Madurai, Coimbatore, Trichy, Salem, Nellai, Tuticorin etc., TNSTCs can charge extra in premium routes so that the losses in the other routes will be nullified in other routes. KSRTC charge almost 1.5 times for their spl buses. I havent seen such a steep increase for the fares in spl buses operated by our TNSTCs. TNSTCs should charge a bit more for their spl bus services. Fare revision should be done. For city services in urban areas minimum fare can be fixes as Rs.3 and in village the fare cane be left as Rs.2. Include Insurance, Maintenance cost, Toll fee as extra parameters for premium services. Explore the possibility of Vestibule buses in 50+ KMs in Intercity routes.

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Width of Entry and Exit points are conveniently wide in TNSTC-Coimbatore division buses. The same measurement need to be adopted for all other city buses coming under different divisions. Every year maintenance award and operational award (For clearing the festival rushes and operation to rural parts, discovery of new routes) throughout TN.

New ideas to generate revenue from untapped resource TNSTC to take over all bus stops in Coimbatore, Madurai and Tiruchi. This will be a new source of continuous revenue. Taking over bus stands in major cities and towns and development of infrastructure to exploit the vertical space. Commercial complexes and huge parking bays will become a regular source of income. Initiate proceedings in Supreme Court against the Madras High Court ruling banning advertisements on bus exteriors. This will help the MTC Volvo services to break even easily (approx revenue from ads. On Volvo  8k per day). Introduce the use of Ethanol blended diesel (10% blending) in STC’s. This will lead to a saving of 50 paise per Km. Ethanol costs Rs.34 per litre. Blending is done at 22% in Brazil [1]. KaSRTC[2] got increased mileage and reduced smoke density in considerable amount. Advertisement display on the rear of bus tickets. Make Hosur(AttibelleBorder) as a point for connecting other TN cities. This will get more revenue for TNSTCs. Make Hosur as a Transit Hub for TNSTCs to avoid getting more Interstate permits from KA. Operate more buses from Hosur(Attibelleborder) to Interior TN cities. Motels to be created in important highways in collaboration with TTDC. Most of the motels operated by private in the highways are in pathetic conditions. Food qualities are so bad and are sold at high rates. Most of the eatables sold in these Motels are above MRP(ex: Rs.5 Lays packet is sold for Rs.7) Suggestion on location of the Motels are:  Near Tholudur  Near Krishnagiri.  Perundurai  Kovilpatti or Virudhunagar  Near Kovalam / Marakannam in ECR in Chennai - Pondy Highway.

Focus on Tourism Weekend tourist buses can be started from Bangalore/Chennai to Navagraha temples, Rameshwaram, Palani. Tourist buses from Trivandrum/Ernakulam to Palani, Velankanni should be introduced. Circuit buses similar to the TNSTC-Coimbatore's circut services can be introduced in important tourist destinations like Ooty, Kodaikanal, Nagercoil dist, Madurai, Chennai along with Kanchipuram.

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KSRTC operates 6 Volvos daily in Ooty-Coimbatore route. But TNSTC/SETC is not able to run even a single good looking UD service. This should be changed. Branding can be done for Volvo/UD buses. Name your TNSTC Volvo can be conducted as a contest across TN Students. This will help in creating awareness across people. Nellai and Thoothukudi district circular buses should be operated to Nava kaylayam (nine temples of lord Shiva) and Nava Thirupathi (nine temples of Lord Vishnu).

MTC MTC need to major revision in the running time for the trips. MTC should take over all the bus stops present in Chennai. This help MTC in getting some Ad revenues. Appeal against madras high court rulings against the advertisements in buses. Daily, Weekly, Monthly passes for AC buses to be provided. Unified Transport Authority to be formed in Chennai along with MRTS, SubUrban, MTC, Metro and other new transportation systems. Passes for all these can be introduced in a trial and can be extended in future. Unused spaces in the MRTS area (If any) can be used for creating new depots for MTC. Currently MTC operates around 3000+ buses in and around Chennai city. This need to be increased. 100 Volvo buses are also operated. Number of Volvo buses can be increased to 200. MTC should also try a mid segment AC bus between Volvo and SLF using AC Semi Low floor buses of Leyland. o We need a premium AC service (a step less entry- 330m entry height, Rear engine, Air conditioner, FM radio, fabric seats, and park/drive assist camera for driver). With these options we can look at other manufacturers like Ashok Leyland as their investment cost is less and they offer a faster return on investment. It’s a nice principle that our bus fares are lowest in the country. In order to maintain this we need to be more vigil in the investment point of view. We should look options with cheaper options to provide cost effective service. Atleast 1000 more new buses (AL SLFs and no more marcopolos) shall be added asap and they should connect all important places with good frequencies. MTC need to have atleast 5 more new depots while adding new buses. MTC should try transport hubs instead of going for end to end services. People should be able to get down at a place and take the next bus to other location. Metro and MRTS feeders’ services. Most of the MRTS and Sub Urban stations didn’t have proper feeder services, because of this people not able to utilize the Sub Urban and MRTS services effectively. MTC can also try to rent buses to private operators in long term. This will help them in getting more revenues for day to day operations. Proper awareness need to be created about the usage of passes in MTC. Around 70% of the tickets in MTC are purchased on board[5] 7

Specific requirements of cities and towns in TN with regards to transport infrastructure TNSTC-Coimbatore New depots to be planned at Avinashi, Kinathukadavu. Ondipudhur depot has got good amount of space inside the depots. It is being wasted by parking the scrapped buses. This can be cleaned and a new depot can be created for Coimbatore city. Double decker buses can be operated in Avinashi road. Separate region for Coimbatore city bus operations to be formed as per guideline of JNNRUM. AC Buses for Coimbatore city bus operations. SLF buses for Tirupur and Erode city bus operations.

TNSTC-Madurai: Madurai city bus operations should be standardized in terms of fares and paint schemes. Buses charging Normal/LSS/City Express fares and SLF fare didn’t have any difference in terms of stoppages. Separate region for Madurai city bus operations to be formed as per guideline of JNNRUM. New depots to can be formed at Avaniyapuram, Alagarkoil, Chatrapatti.

TNSTC-Thirunelveli New region for Tuticorin district should be formed under Tirunelveli division. City buses older than 5+ yrs should replaced in both Thirunelveli and Nagercoil regions. A Special package can be provided for Nellai division to replace the older buses. New depot at Udangudi shall be formed in view of operating more buses in that area. Number of buses services should be increased to coastal regions in ECR from Thoothukudi. Peak Hour Services should be reintroduced in both Moffusil and City services. Super Deluxe buses shall be operated by Nellai division in the following routes. a. Udangudi-Eral-Chennai. b. Udangudi-Kovai c. Kallakad-Eruvadi-Chennai d. Sankarakovil-Chennai. e. Vilathikulam-Chennai Number of buses services should be increased to coastal regions in ECR from Thoothukudi.

TNSTC-Salem: 

SLF buses for city bus services in Salem and Hosur areas.

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AC buses from Chennai to Salem, Namakkal, Dharmapuri and Hosur.

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Improving Salem City bus service as of now it is Old i.e town bus stand centric. Network should be revamped as still 1989 network is followed when Salem was a municipality then. For 2011 requirement new routes has to be explored.

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Introduce inter-city services  From Salem to places like Tirunelveli, Tuticorin, Kanyakumari.  From Namakkal to Madurai, Tirunelveli, Tuticorin.  Hosur/Dharmapuri to Thanjavur, Tirunelveli, Tuticorin. Introduction of the following for Salem city:  Circular city bus services  New bus routes to avoid passengers changing over at Old Bus Terminus needlessly.

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TNSTC Villupuram 

Villupuram should concentrate more on operational area.

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New buses are allotted to prime routes. It should also look other routes when adding new buses.

Proposed High End (Volvo or Benz or 12M AC of Leyland) bus routes: From Chennai: Chennai to Madurai. Chennai to Coimbatore. Chennai to Pondy Chennai to Nagai/Velankanni Chennai to Tanjore Chennai to Kumbakonam Chennai to Trichy Chennai to Karur Chennai to Ramanathapuram/Keelakarai Chennai to Rameshwaram Chennai to Devakottai/Karaikudi Chennai to Salem Chennai to Hosur Chennai to Sathy Chennai to Erode 9

Chennai to Ooty Chennai to Tirupur Chennai to Pollachi Chennai to Palani Chennai to Theni/Kumily/Bodi Chennai to Kodai Chennai to Thirunelveli Chennai to Nagercoil Chennai to Kanyakumari Chennai to Marthandam Chennai to Sengottai Chennai to Udenkudi/Tiruchendur Chennai to Tuticorin Chennai to Sivakasi/Srivilluputhur

From Coimbatore Coimbatore to Kanyakumari Coimbatore to Pondy Coimbatore to Thiruchendur/Tuticorin Coimbatore to Karaikal/Velankanni Coimbatore to Madurai Tirupur to Kanyakumari

Interstate Kerala routes: Chennai to Trivandrum Chennai to Guruvayoor Chennai to Ernakulam Chennai to Kottayam Chennai to Thrissur/Palakkad via Coimbatore Chennai to Kollam via Sencottah Coimbatore to Trivandrum Pondy to Trivandrum Palani to Trivandrum via Thrissur, Ernakulam Ooty to Trivandrum Rameshwaram to Guruvayoor Kodai to Ernakulam/Trivandrum Hosur to Trivandrum Velankanni to Kollam/Ernakulam Kayalpattinam/Tuticorin to Kozhikode

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Interstate Karnataka routes: Chennai to Bangalore Chennai to Mysore Coimbatore to Bangalore Coimbatore to Mangalore Trichy to Bangalore Madurai to Bangalore Salem to Bangalore Tirupur to Bangalore via Erode Trivandrum to Bangalore Velankanni to Bangalore Thirunelveli to Bangalore Kanyakumari to Bangalore Marthandam/Nagercoil to Bangalore Rameshwaram to Bangalore Kumbakonam to Bangalore Pondicherry to Bangalore Villupuram/Neyveli T.S to Bangalore Palani to Bangalore via Dindigul Pollachi to Bangalore via Coimbatore/Tirupur Ooty to Bangalore Madurai to Mysore Sengottai to Bangalore

Interstate Andhra routes: Chennai to Tirupathi Chennai to Vijayawada Chennai to Hyderabad Chennai to Vizag Chennai to Puttabarthi Coimbatore to Tirupathi Madurai to Tirupathi Trichy to Tirupathi Salem to Tirupathi Kanyakumari to Thirupathi Pondy to Tirupathi Tanjore to Tirupathi via kumbakonam Pollachi/Tirupur to Tirupathi via Erode Rajapalayam/Srivilliputhur to Tirupathi Thiruchendur to Tirupathi 11

Sengottai to Tirupathi

Reference: [1].Bio Diesdel details  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol_fuel_in_Brazil [2].Bio Diesel KSRTC success story  http://www.hindu.com/2007/01/31/stories/2007013117930300.htm [3].KSRTC Online reservation, a success story  http://hindu.com/2010/09/10/stories/2010091062960800.htm [4]. KaSRTC booking Counters: http://www.ksrtc.in/site/pdf/intercounter.pdf [5]. http://straphanger.wordpress.com/2011/03/24/over-70-pc-of-chennai-mtc-passengers-must-buytickets-on-board-buses/

[6] Advertisement Revenue through tickets  http://www.hindu.com/2008/09/27/stories/2008092757110200.htm [7]. TTMC, BMTC success story  http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_bmtc-shows-theway_1173501 [8]. Bus day, success story  http://www.deccanherald.com/content/62684/bus-day-hit-bmtc.html

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